


Never look back

by Coal_burningbright



Series: Kids made of Iron [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: ;), Gen, Harley Keener Needs a Hug, Harley Keener-centric, Hurt Harley Keener, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mental Health Issues, Peter Parker Dies, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, gosh whoever wrote this must have been a mad-person, so many issues in one character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28479339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coal_burningbright/pseuds/Coal_burningbright
Summary: Harley’s father left to go buy a lottery ticket and must have won because he never came back.The man Harley had begun to regard as his father went to save the universe and they won because he never came back.Harley was sick of losing people.Harley won engineering competitions and respect and kept going.Never look back, he had been taught.Win and never look back.So he didn’t.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Harley Keener's Father, Harley Keener & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Harley Keener & Peter Parker, Harley Keener & Tony Stark
Series: Kids made of Iron [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962460
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Never look back

**Author's Note:**

> Tw for suicide, character deaths, and a character dealing with not feeling good enough  
> Thank you so much for reading my work!

Harley’s father left to go buy a lottery ticket and must have won because he never came back.

The man Harley had begun to regard as his father went to save the universe and they won because he never came back.

Harley was sick of losing people.

Harley won engineering competitions and respect and kept going.

_ Never look back _ , he had been taught. 

_ Win and never look back. _

So he didn’t.

Harley kept going because it’s all he could do.

He’d read once that if sharks stop swimming they die, he thought maybe he was like that too.

Swim or sink and never look back.

So he never did.

Harley left his small town behind and never went back.

He left for a funeral and stayed for the chances.

Harley worked as an intern for the head of Stark Industries. He rented an apartment in the city and ignored his family's phone calls.

He made brilliant new inventions and the world cheered and he talked of all the great things they would do and he didn’t look back at the countless days without sleep or food it had taken to make the things. 

Harley kept going. 

He built himself a suit and was a new Iron-Man. 

The press still ignored him in favor of Morgan. 

_ The true heir to Stark Industries _ they said and Harley threw down his wrench in anger and turned off the television. 

_ The true heir to Stark Industries _ they said and Harley built bigger and better things and disabled Friday’s protocols that were in place to make sure he took care of himself.

_ The true heir to Stark Industries _ they said and Harley vowed to prove he was as good. 

He vowed to prove that it didn’t matter he had been found in a garage with a potato gun and that Morgan had been loved from the moment she was born.

He vowed to prove the voice in the back of his head wrong.

Harley met Peter Parker at a funeral. 

It was sunny which seemed wrong for a funeral but Harley had never been to one before. 

He met Peter after Peter was embraced by Pepper Stark.

He just said hello really.

Later he learned that Peter was Spider-man. 

But Peter wasn’t the only one who could be a hero.

Harley built better and better suits.

He included the camouflage and flew unseeable through the nights. 

Peter might save the city but he would save the world.

Harley was twenty-nine when Morgan was named the successor to Pepper Stark as CEO.

No one apologized to him.

Why would they?

He was just the head of research after all.

Harley was twenty-nine and he was in charge of all the technological advancements for the largest company in the world.

Morgan Stark was twelve and being prepared to take over the largest company in the world.

He wasn’t jealous.

Harley was twenty-nine and he was Iron-Man.

Peter was twenty-four and he was Spider-Man.

Peter was twenty-five and he was dead.

Harley said goodbye to Peter Parker at a funeral. 

He half felt bad for his jealousy then, standing above the body of a dead man.

He pushed on.

Never look back.

Harley was talked to in a press conference and at first, he thought the reporter wanted to talk about his machines that made water from nothing

but instead, 

he was asked what it’s like to be the mentor to the daughter of Tony Stark.

He barely talked to Morgan once a month.

It wasn’t fair.

But what could he do?

Harley Keener was thirty when he left his room in his house just a few blocks away from the tower.

He’d turned down the offer of his own room there.

He left his house and never looked back.

Harley Keener looked over the bridge at the rushing water and never looked back.

**Author's Note:**

> Please kudos and/or comment if you liked it? I don't have much motivation to write nowadays but it was a nice comment that promted me to go through my drive and finish this


End file.
